Sociology thru Film
SYP 4631 Tuesdays 5:00-7:40
PC 439
Spring 2008
Professor Marifeli Pérez-Stable
http://www.fiu.edu/~stablem
Marifeli.Perez-Stable@fiu.edu
305-348-1297, DM 338
Office hours: Tuesdays 3:00-4:30 or by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Ms. Parvaneh Julian ppull001@fiu.edu
Reading Materials
Terry H. Anderson, The Sixties (Pearson Longman, 2007) 3rd edition.
Read entire book between January 8 and February 19.
PAPER I DUE: February 26
Under each week’s film, I have posted links to readings for February 26-April 15.
PAPER II DUE: April 23
Requirements
Keeping up with reading assignments as specified in the schedule below. I have included
a link that gives additional information a) on the film and/or b) the events covered by the
film. You might find it helpful to visit these web pages BEFORE watching the film in
class.
You will hand in TWO papers based on films, reading materials, links, and class
discussions. Ms. Julian will send via email a set of questions to guide you in writing the
papers. Due dates –which are carved in stone— are listed in the schedule below. Keep
in mind that the papers MUST reflect the films, readings, links, and class discussion.
Your opinion without SPECIFIC references to the assignments will not get you very far
grade-wise.
On-time, class attendance is a MUST. If you can’t make it to class, it is YOUR
responsibility to get the film on your own, watch it, and hand in the one-page
commentary described below. Keep in mind that our once-a-week meeting time makes
each absence equivalent to TWO T-Th classes or THREE M-W-F classes.
You will hand a word-processed (NOT handwritten), one-page commentary on the
previous week’s film. The film links + the film + class discussion will certainly help you
to write the commentary. Since I will not require a commentary on shown April 15, our
last meeting, you will hand in a total of 13 commentaries.
14 class days + 13 commentaries=27 points
Final grades will be determined as follows:
Mid-term paper
Final paper
Attendance + commentaries
40 percent
60 percent
85%-100% = +.5, i.e., a final grade of B becomes
B+ (23 or higher)
70%-84% = grade remains the same (19-22)
Less than 70%= -.5, i.e., a final grade of B becomes
a B- (19 or less)
THE COMMENTARIES AND CLASS ATTENDANCE ARE, IN EFFECT, EXTRA
CREDIT. DON’T LOSE IT!
Plagiarism is theft. Don’t do it!
E-mail communications
It is your responsibility to confirm that Ms. Supanich has your email –preferably FIU’s
to avoid junked messages— and to make sure that you are receiving her emails. If you
don’t receive class-related emails, communicate with her IMMEDIATELY. Don’t wait
until the end of the semester!
Anything pertaining to administrative matters, i.e., missing emails and materials, write to
Ms. Julian.
Anything pertaining to substantive matters, i.e., not understanding the films or the
readings, making an appointment or raising questions about a grade, you write to me
directly.
Class and Film Schedule
January 8
Far from Heaven (2002)
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html
January 15
Sixties: Years that Shaped a Generation (1997)
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html
January 22
Four Little Girls (1997)
http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/16thstreetbaptistchurch/a/16streetbombing.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html
January 29
Freedom on My Mind (1994)
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/free
dom_summer.htm
February 5
Hearts & Minds (1974)
http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/timeline/1960-1963.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/timeline/1964-1967.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/timeline/1968-1973.htm
February 12
Two Days in October (2005)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/twodays/
February 19
All the President’s Men (1976)
http://watergate.info/
February 26
Paper I Due
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002)
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade90.html
Ronald Dworkin, “A Badly Flawed Election,” The New York
Review of Books, January 11, 2001
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13954
“A Badly Flawed Election: An Exchange,” The New York
Review of Books, February22, 2001
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14004
March 4
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
http://www.answers.com/topic/enron-corporation
http://www.slate.com/id/2061470/
Ms. Julian will email you: Jeff Madrick, “Enron: Seduction and
Betrayal,” The New York Review of Books, March 14, 2002
March 11
Is Wal-Mart Good for America? (2004)
Daniel W. Drezner, “The Outsourcing Bogeyman,” Foreign
Affairs, May-June 2004
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/20040501faessay83301/danielw-drezner/the-outsourcing-bogeyman.html?mode=print
Benjamin M. Friedman, “Globalization: Stiglitz’s Case,” The New
York Review of Books, August 15, 2002
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15630
March 17-21
SPRING BREAK
March 25
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Elizabeth C. Economy, “The Great Leap Backward?” Foreign
Affairs, September-October 2007
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/20070901faessay86503/elizabet
h-c-economy/the-great-leap-backward.html?mode=print
April 1
Why We Fight (2005)
Kenneth M. Pollack, “Next Stop Baghdad?” Foreign Affairs,
March-April 2002
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/20020301faessay7970/kennethm-pollack/next-stop-baghdad.html?mode=print
Larry Diamond, “What Went Wrong in Iraq?” Foreign Affairs,
September-October 2004
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/20040901faessay83505/larrydiamond/what-went-wrong-in-iraq.html?mode=print
April 8
No End in Sight (2007)
Michael Ignatieff, “Getting Iraq Wrong,” New York Times
Magazine, August 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05iraqt.html?pagewanted=print
Robert D. Kaplan, “On Forgetting the Obvious,” The American
Interest, July-August 2007
http://www.the-americaninterest.com/ai2/article.cfm?Id=289&MId=14
April 15
Border War: The Battle over Illegal Immigration (2006)
Tamar Jacoby, “Immigration Nation,” Foreign Affairs, NovemberDecember 2006
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/20061101faessay85606/tamarjacoby/immigration-nation.html?mode=print